Survival rates from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are disappointing
in most locations.1 Early CPR has been shown
to be a vital link in the ‘‘Chain of Survival’’ for outof-
hospital cardiac arrest and is an important key to
improving survival rates.2 Dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary
resuscitation was first conceived in the early 1970s.3
Later investigations demonstrated that untrained callers
could be instructed to perform CPR by trained dispatchers
over the telephone3,4; and that it might improve patient
outcome